Relan Völundr
|image1 = File:Relan.png |caption1 = Völundr the Smith |race = Atmoran/Nede |gender = Male |age = 28 (1E 139) |height = 192 cm |weight = 97 kg |status = Alive |date_of_birth = 1E 108 |place_of_birth = Steinfell, Falkreath Hold |family = Thignirr Völundr(Father) Nimatev Völundr(Mother) Egil Völundr(Brother) Slagfiðr Völundr(Brother) |titles = The Smith |factions = Clan Völundr |class = Warrior-Smith }} ' , sometimes referred to as Völundr the Smith, is a master blacksmith. And one of the few smiths to be able to craft weapons and armour out of dragon bones and dragon scales. History Backstory Relan was born in Steinfell, as a child he was a quick study in the art of smithing, with the residents impressed by his ability to learn, he travelled to Drakefell alongside his father to continue his training as a smith. he lived here with the companions for several years, although he did not become a companion himself. In his later teens, he was able to smith ebony weapons and later learning, from the Iði Gray-Mane the smith of the Skyforge on how to handle daedric and dragon smithing. He would eventually use his newfound skills to sell a wide array of weapons and armour to the highest bidder and buying the materials to create his Dragonleather armour and Dragonbone Hammer. He would then leave at the age of 20 and travel Skyrim for a year, selling his products. He eventually joined the college at Frøsselvirk in order to recruit the mages into creating a number of unique spells for him, the ability to create an entire smithing station. Something they agreed to do, in the meantime he was practising enchanting and conjuration, he stayed here for about 4 years as the spells was being created and left soon after it's completion, paying the mages with exquisite enchanted rings and amulets, crafted by himself. As a 23 year old man he wandered all of Skyrim, selling his craft to noblemen and rich adventurers, he gained quite a reputation for his powerful weapons. Ballad of the High King Selling a Treasure Relan had heard the rumors of a dragon terrorizing the town of Yorgrim and decided to head to there to see if any of the would-be dragon hunters wanted for new weapons. While at Yorgrim he made a deal with the local smith to use her forge. During his time at the smithy, he created a terrifyingly sharp steel dagger: Jorntönn. Though his pride got the better of him and he spent much of his time either criticizing the Blacksmiths' work or making improvements on it. This earned him the ire of the blacksmith, Alla Luðinnsdóttir, and she kicked him out of her smithy. Eventually the dragonslayers returned to Yorgrim. Thane Harald Word-Bringer rode in the front on his horse. His housecarl, Skorm Snow-Strider had the second horse, leading the sled carrying the dragon Jermulgraag's severed head. As soon as the first townspeople saw the dragon skull, word spread across all of Yorgrim. The people gathered around the group, their mouths a gasp at the sight of the dragon's head. When they made it to the town square, Harald gave a short speech that caused the people to cheer his name and applaud the heroes. Chief Jænis of Yorgrim arrived in the town square and called for a feast in their honor. The chieftain's announcement made the people cheer louder. That day Yorgrim was enthralled in a festival that lasted well into the night. Not even the cold could stop the Atmorans from celebrating. Relan didn't participate in the festivities and instead kept to his work until he was approached by one of the dragonslayer. Relan welcomed him to his forge and introduced himself. He noticed that the masked hunter had ill-maintained weapons on him and said they were unfit for a hero. They had been taken from draugr, as the man's previous weapons had been lost during the quest. Noticing an opportunity for a sale, he showed the man one of his seven treasures, the elven sword Bittnahjold. That was the type of weapon a hero should use. The smith handed the sword to the man for him to test it. Seemingly impressed with the sword, the man agreed to buy it. He wasted practically all his gold on it, but it was worth it. The smith also fixed up the draugr axe for him, while offering to buy the draugr sword. Another of the dragonslayers came not long after. He asked the smith to work on his sword, as he didn't trust in the skill of Alla to work on such an old weapon. Relan eagerly took the weapon and worked on it until the weapon was better than new. When it came time to pay the two disagreed on the price and left on sour terms after exchanging insults. Orcs of Akul Khazak After that, Relan was no longer excited to work for the dragonslayers and decided that it was time to leave. Though when he was heading to the docks he ran into a familiar face from his time in Drakefell, Tiskr Rjaakasig. They talked and he learned that Tiskr was a part of the Order of the Stormhawk and that the man that had bought Bittnahjold was his master. Tiskr had in fact borrowed the sword for his next quest against a group of Orcs up north along with another stormhawk, the mage Reeth Gylden-hand. Relan decided to accompany them on this quest, to witness someone wielding one of his treasures firsthand. They headed to the village of Silfrisin. On the way there they ran into Jofrodr Sword-Thrower, the man that had argued with Relan, and Reyl Golden-Maid, another Companion. They kept their distance from the Companions. There was trouble on the road with giants fighting a group of humans, but the trio didn't interfere. When they arrived at the village they found it seemingly abandoned. Some of the buildings looked damaged and others were completely burned down. Tiskr and Relan began looking around the settlement for any survivors, while Reeth went to search for tracks. They didn't find any survivors, only bodies remained. They could see signs of battle around the village. In fact, they noticed a bit of smoke coming from the east. It was a very small column, barely noticeable against the bleak winter sky. They headed there to investigate. The column of smoke was faltering as they approached. By the time they reached the source it was already out. They found that the source was a burned out house. The ashes were still warm so the attack was recent. They looked around for the attackers. As soon as they turned the corner they found a large splatter of blood across the snowy street and nearby was the body of a dead Orc. More fresh blood littered the street ahead, along with more bodies. They found more bodies there. Among the dead Orcs was a lone man. He was kneeling in the bloody snow with his hand grasping an amulet close to his chest. The man was mumbling something, but none of them could hear him well enough to know what he was saying. They approached cautiously, but the man didn't seem to notice them. He kept praying then stood up and retrieved his axe from a nearby dead Orc. Tiskr complemented the man's fighting prowess, seeing as he had killed a group of Orcs alone. They introduced themselves to him and he revealed that his name was Hans. His accent was quite strange. He ignored them and began to walk away. Reeth was interested in following the man, but Tiskr stopped him so that they could focus on finding the Orc stronghold. Reeth climbed one of the nearby buildings to see if he could spot any Orcs. He came down, not finding any sign of the stronghold. All he found were more humans gathering at the village square. Tiskr decided to leave the humans alone and go into the wilderness to search for the Orcs. Reeth and Relan tried to convince Tiskr to seek help from the Companions. The three of them wouldn't be able to take on the Orc Stronghold alone. Tiskr decided to search for the Orcs first. If things got hairy, Reeth could use his magic to teleport them to Wyrmstooth. They followed tracks from the dead Orcs, but lost the trail completely about a four kilometers from the village, where the snowy hills gave way to a craggy landscape of stones and rock walls. No matter how hard they looked, they couldn't pick up the trail again. The trio headed up a mountain path that they assumed the Orcs might have taken. The farther up they got the more treacherous it became. It was getting hard to follow as the snow was hiding loose stones and faults in the path. Relan felt that he stepped on a loose stone as it shifted under his weight and began to plummet down the mountainside. Tiskr grabbed Relan and made sure he didn't fall. Since this path was too treacherous they headed back. All this trekking around had wasted a good portion of the day, the sun was already starting to go down. The trio decided to set up camp. The trio found stable enough ground to set their camp, a covered ledge area that got them out of the snow and protected them from the worst of the winds. Relan summoned his magic forge to keep them warm, which impressed the trio. During Relan's shift, a group of Orcs appeared from seemingly nowhere outside their camp. Tiskr wasn't asleep so he reacted quickly and protected the others while they got their bearings. Relan summoned a Dremora to aid them and they managed to kill the Orcs. They waited to see if more Orcs were nearby, then went to sleep. Tiskr was woken up in the middle of the night by Reeth, who showed him some dim lights in the distance. They didn't know what caused them, but guessed that they had something to do with the Orcs. Though they waited until morning before setting off to investigate the lights. Try as they might, the three could not find source of the lights. They went exactly where Reeth had seen them coming from, but there was nothing there out of the ordinary. It looked like just normal mountainside landscape: rocks, stone and snow. They wondered what could have been the source of the lights. They searched for another hour around the area and still found no sign, when they were suddenly attacked. An Orc appeared out of seemingly nowhere and attacked Relan, while another fired an arrow at Tiskr. They fought off the Orcs once more, but Relan was stabbed in the lower torso during the fight. Reeth did his best to stop the bleeding, but Relan was left with an open wound. Meanwhile Tiskr was searching for a secret passage from where the Orcs came from. He uncovered a hidden crevasse in the rockwall where a person could slip in and out from. He could also see a faint light of torches inside the passage. He called the others over and after some short deliberations, they headed into the hidden crevasse. The trio squeezed through the crevasse and found themselves in the poorly lit cavern corridor that the Orcs had came from. They could see that the corridor wasn't natural, as wooden beams were holding up part of the corridor. It looked very much like a mine shaft. They took a torch from the wall to be able to see and began to traverse the mines. They followed the mine shaft for quite a while before reaching something. They found a chamber that served as an outpost and a crossroads, as it had three other passages leading to it. It held some crates of supplies along with sleeping furs in a makeshift sleeping mat on the ground. They searched the supplies for anything useful until Relan warned them that someone was coming. They hid behind the crates and waited. When they put out their lights, the trio could still see torchlight coming from connecting passages, though one was brighter than the rest. It was the same one that they had come from. The trio saw the lights coming closer and closer with each passing minute, until the torches were practically in the room. It was hard to see as their eyes had began to adjust to the darkness. When the torches came into view it nearly blinded them. They saw that the ones holding the torches were humans. They didn't recognize any of them, but they seemed to be wearing Companion style armor and colors. Seeing that they were not enemies, Tiskr revealed himself and began to leave. He still didn't want to work with the Companions. One of the Companions recognized them and tried to get them to stop, but Tiskr ignored him and called Reeth and Relan to his side. The Stormhawks and Relan walked for a while until they saw a group of Orcs up ahead. Since the Orcs hadn't noticed them they decided to follow instead of attacking. The orcs stopped to rest in an outpost room. It was the perfect place for an ambush so Reeth and the others attacked before they were discovered. They caught the Orcs by surprise and finished them off quickly thanks to the mage's lightning. They tracked the footprints of the group and found a large mining chamber which housed too many Orcs for the Stormhawks to defeat. They backtracked to find another way through and ran into another group of Companions. This one led by Harbinger Randagulf himself. He recognized Relan, who had apprenticed under the Gray-Mane smith at the Jorrvaskr mead hall. Both were glad to see each other. After sharing what information they knew, they joined forces with the Harbinger to find their way to the stronghold as the Orcs had begun to collapse tunnels that connected to their home. Now that they had more warriors at their disposal, they headed back to the large mining chamber. This time, the Orcs spotted them first and attacked. With the Companions aiding them, the Stormhawks were able to break through the mouth of the tunnel and make their way down to the bottom floor where a tunnel linked up to the mine exit. During the fight, the Companions witnessed Relan summoning Daedra. Though initially put off by this, the Companions learned to fight alongside the daedric minion. Relan stayed back, letting his servant do all the fighting. They found that the Orcs there were being attacked by another Companion group. Together they overwhelmed the Orcs from both sides and killed them all. The Orcs tried to cut off their only advance into the stronghold. Luckily for the humans, Jofrodr used his telekinesis magic to hold the tunnel roof in place. He urged his companions to go on without him. The Stormhawks were the first ones through, followed closely by Relan, Randagulf and the others. The tunnel collapsed behind them when Jofrodr's magicka ran out. In the last mining chamber they found the largest group of Orcs thus far led by the Orc Champion and a Red-skinned she-orc. The Companions formed a shieldwall to protect themselves from the Orc archers and warriors. The Orcs charged at them, but with Reyl's magic boosting their strength the Companions managed to hold them back. Reeth remained behind the shieldwall and focused on shooting lightningbolts at the Orc archers atop their platforms, while Tiskr went into the fray of battle. Relan remained with Reeth, but sent his Dremora Lord to engage in battle alongside Tiskr. The Dremora fought and pushed back the Orc Champion, almost managing to kill him. The fight against the Orcs was not going in the humans' favor, not until Reeth zapped some oil barrels with lightning and set off a chain explosion that coated much of the enemy force in burning oil. That dealt a crushing blow to the Orc warriors. Only then did Relan join the fray and fought alongside the other humans. He lent some of his treasures to the Companions during the battle. The battle in the mines was gruesome, with many Companions meeting their end, but the Atmorans were able to defeat the Orcs. They did not rest, instead they headed outside into the stronghold and found that it was ablaze and in the middle of a battle. Other Companions led by Captain Bodvar had attacked the Orcs' home and were fighting in the longhouse's courtyard. Harbinger Randagulf led the survivors of the mining tunnels into the battle, attacking the Orcs on their flank. Their arrival turned the tide of the battle, which had been in the favor of the Orc Chief. Like before Relan remained behind, only sending his daedric servant to fight in his stead. The battle ended when Tiskr dealt the final blow to the Orc Chief. The rest of the Orcs were slaughtered and their stronghold burned to the ground. Calm before the Storm With the battle over, the Companions were recovering, burying their dead, counting the kills, looting the stronghold and resting. Relan took the opportunity to take some of the Orcs' resources and minerals for himself, using his daedric butler to collect them and send them to Oblivion for safekeeping. Afterwards he retrieved his lend treasures from the Companions and when the Companion crews decided to leave he chose to join Bodvar Little-Bear's party until they dropped him off at Vindhelm. He said his farewells to the Stormhawks and promised Tiskr Rjaakasig a new shield to replace the once he lost during the battle against the Orcs. When he arrived in Vindhelm, Relan rented a room at one of the city's largest inns and began to work as a blacksmith there. He created Vardasturm, the shield that he had promised Tiskr, and sent it on a boat to Dagastar, where the Stormhawks had gone. He had no shortage of work in Vindhelm as the Jarl Harald Word-Bringer had declared war on the Snow Elves and sent out a call to arms to all true sons of Skyrim to join him. As such Relan was packed with requests for new weapons and armor for the war effort. Works Apart from the masterful smithing Relan does, he is prone to engrave his name with Nordic runes at the base of each weapon's blade or hilt to show who made it. His most notable works are listed below. Most of these weapons are in the possession of his Dremora servant. Seven of his weapons are nicknamed "The Seven Treasures". *'''Frandeld - His prized dragonbone hammer, functioning as both his weapon of choice and his main blacksmithing tool. It's fire enchantment values the hammer at 2.902 eyrir. The Seven Treasures *'Modkørst' - An ebony greatsword, it is able to send any daedra back to Oblivion with a single swing, it is valued at 6.610 eyrir *'Bittnahjold' - An elven shortsword, said to create a sound as it slashes through the winds, the blade is imbued with untold sharpness. The Sword was sold to Hefndir Sturmhaukr at Yorgrim for 2000 eyrir. *'Thyllsnær' - a carved steel warhammer, it's frost enchantment is said to cause snowstorms, it is valued at 2.946 eyrir. *'Snillais' - an ebony flail of fire, it's fire enchantment is told to change the seasons, it is valued at 1.995 eyrir. *'Sturmarn' - a golden spear of lightning, it's shock enchantment is rumoured to pierce the heavens, it is valued at 1.807 eyrir. *'Thundsæra' - A daedric dagger, tales say it will pierce through any armour without difficulty, Relan estimates it's valued at 1.482 eyrir. *'Fafnadreng' - An elven bow with the ability to paralyze its targets while also making no sound upon being fired, it's valued at 1.257 eyrir. Other works *'Gramr' - His most powerful sword crafted from daedric metal, he keeps it locked away in Oblivion. This blade is told to slay the Daedra themselves with the power of Fire, Frost and Lightning, Relan estimates it's valued at 8.304 eyrir and has decided to not try and sell the weapon. *'Jorntönn' - A newly crafted steel sword, he keeps it in his belt, it is valued at 54 eyrir. *'Vardasturm' - The Elven Orichalcum shield, it was given to Tiskr shortly after his arrival at Dagastar. the shield protects it's wielder from any magical effect, Relan believes it's worth to be 2.602 eyrir. most of the aforementioned tales and rumours are false, but there is no question that the weapons surpass their normal counterparts. Personality Relan Völundr is a perfectionist, setting high goals and work hard toward them. He is critical of himself and of others and tend to spot tiny mistakes and imperfections in his own work, he has an unrealistic standards and as such, his most powerful weapons and armour can take a month to finish. Relan is extremely stubborn unreasonably and perversely unyielding in his opinion, if someone opposes his opinion he will never back down. Relan is prideful and holds his work in especially high esteem as he appears to achieve the perfection he seeks in his work unlike most other smiths across Tamriel. Socially, Relan is inexperienced as his only purpose in life is to become the greatest blacksmith on Nirn and passing on his craft to descendants or other people who share his views. Appearance Relan stands at roughly 192 centimetres in height, true to his mixed heritage he is shorter than most Atmorans yet taller than the average Nede. He has dark brown hair, bordering on black and has a thin beard and moustache, he has hazel coloured eyes. For a smith he has finer features than most. Relan wears a brown full Dragonleather armour, complete with gloves and boots although without the helmet, instead he wears a pair of goggles to protect his eyes during smithing. Powers and Abilities Relan's abilities as a smith surpass most, if not all smiths in Skyrim. He believes himself to be the greatest smith in the Aurbis, he was taught first by the local blacksmith of Steinfell and later moved on to Drakefell where he learned from the blacksmith at the Skyforge, Idi Gray-Mane, to continue to hone his craft Relan left Drakefell, he was a student at the College of winterhold for years, in this time he master Enchanting and Conjuration recruiting mages into crafting a number of spells for him, enabling him to summon an entire smithy wherever he would please. He has an array of summoning spells enabling him to summon a Dremora Lord, a Dremora Butler as well as a Dremora Merchant. This enables him to gather rare materials. As a half Atmoran, he resists the cold of skyrim, and owing to his Nede heritage, he seems to be good at finding valuable gems, something he often uses in his weapons for aesthetics. Statistics *Attributes: Endurance and Luck *Major Skills: Master Smithing, Master Enchanting, Master Conjuration, Expert One-Handed *Minor Skills: Light Armor, Mercantile, Athletics *Spells: Thrall Forge, Thrall Anvil, Thrall Smelter, Thrall Workbench, Thrall Grindstone, Thrall Rack(All his spells work together to create a functional smithing station), Black Market, Dremora Butler, Conjure Dremora Lord. *Powers: Resist Frost, Imperial Luck, Enhanced Crafting(Relan can craft the strongest of weapons and the toughest of armours to perfection if given appropriate time.) *Equipment: Dragonleather armour, similar in style to the leather armour that would only be found millennia later in the province that would then be named Cyrodiil. Dragonbone Hammer, similar in shape to a dwarven warhammer although smaller with different materials, comparable to a Dragonbone Mace. A notebook where he writes about what he sees and draws pictures of it. Pickaxe, Backpack filled with an assortment of ores, ingots, leather and leather strips. Trivia *Relan Volundr is named after and based on "Wayland the Smith" a legendary master smith mentioned in the Poetic Edda, he appears in Deor, Waldere and in Beowulf, the legend is depicted on the Franks Casket, a small Anglo-Saxon whale's bone chest from the early 8th century. Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Blacksmiths Category:Half-Breeds